I know. I can’t believe I’m saying this. I am a self-professed pantser! I thrill at seeing the story unfold, like I’m reading the book rather than writing it. BUT NaNoWriMo has changed me. Truth. In preparation for my very first Nano attempt, I spent a couple weeks thinking the story alllll the way through.

I knew I would have roughly 300 pages at the end of my tale.

I knew I liked short 8-10 page chapters.

I know those break down to roughly 2K words.

I knew I should plan about 30 chapters based on the above stats.

Based on this, I started planning.

I wrote Chapter 1, 2, 3, etc down a sheet of notebook paper and then thought up a sentence to summarize what mini episode would unfold within.

I went back and added details, highlight, scenes etc that should be included under each heading.

Then, I waited.

On November 1st, I started writing. Let me tell you, the preparation has made all the difference. Finding time to write the minimum 1,677 words every single day for a month is tough enough. I can’t imagine trying to make the scraps of time I catch useful ones if I didn’t have a map to guide me through the story. Now, I pull out my notebook and begin to type. I check mark off the smaller ideas as I get them into my script and I ex out the chapters as I finish them up. Seeing the notebook filling with exes makes me happy and confident. I look forward to beginning the next idea and logging my new word count into the NaNoWriMo site each day. We may only be one week in, but I’ve already learned something valuable from this experience. No more pantsing when it counts. For deadlines, I will always plot. Plotting can be done anywhere and then the writing time can be spent writing. I’m so glad for this change of heart because I have plenty of deadlines ahead of me in 2012. I hope I’ve given someone out there an idea or at least a little something to think about. This practice has done wonders to relieve the stress so easily associated with writing for a deadline!

As you all know by now, this is my third year writing and my first year attempting NaNoWriMo. I considered it a writer must do. Something so loved and widely discussed…well I had to say I tried it too! here’s what’s happening so far at the Lindsey home thanks to Nano:

These past four days have kept me up a little later, on the couch a little longer and made my house infinitely messier. No one picks up besides me and if I don’t put the toys away, they just get deeper. Come November 30th, I may need to hire a crane to dig me out.

All meals have come from a can, box or drive thru this week. As it turns out, my kids are thrilled not to have a “healthy well rounded meal” to complain about and my husband is indifferent. He’s so incredibly laid back (as he’d have to be to live with me) sometimes I poke him to be sure he’s breathing. For serious.

Laundry for 5 is a never ending process, but this week it gets washed, dried and dumped out. No folding by me or putting away. Sorry kids, no time. They’re looking a tad wrinkled these days. What can I do? Folding isn’t rocket science. TRY IT

The biggest change for me, personally, has been the lack of reading time. I love to read. I can’t emphasize that enough. I really really LOVE to read. NaNo has taken that from me. I get 30 min a day to read while I’m on the treadmill. It’s not long enough and I am in mourning over my loss.

Well, I’m sure you were all DYING to know how Nano has impacted my life. LOL Now you do!

I’m somewhere in pajamas, guzzling coffee and left over Halloween candy in real life. BUT! In cyberspace, I am cute and perky over at The Story Dam where Brandon Duncan is interviewing me about writing and blogging and reading and bookish things of this sort. I hope you’ve got one more click left in you. Pop over and say Hi! These interviews are a fun way to help other aspirings get to know me. I hope you’ll do a few of your own so we can get to know you too!

Why I Write Paranormal

Writer Wednesday is thrilled to welcome paranormal author Gabriel Madison to the blog today. I’ve tried my hand at para because I *LUV* it…. and failed miserably in a very embarrassing way. … I don’t wanna talk about it. LOL. BUT Gabriel nails paranormal and he gracisouly accepted my invitation to tell me more about why he chooses para and what it means to him. Enjoy!

First I would like to thank Julie for giving me an opportunity to share my feelings on writing paranormal stories.

( *Blushes* *Curtsy* *Drags pointy toe in a little circle*)

About ten years ago a friend of mine introduced me into the metaphorical world of Anne Rice. I know, The Vampire Chronicles had been around for a long time, and I’d seen Interview with the Vampire. I’d never read any of Anne Rice’s books, but I was a huge fan of the vampire mythology. A friend of mine, a fellow vampire fan, told me I had to read Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. She gave me The Vampire Lestat, and I was hooked. I read the entire series after that.

I love writing paranormal stories because I love making up my own worlds and making up my own mythologies like storytellers like Anne Rice. First off, I’m obsessed with mythology and secret societies and conspiracy theories. With writing paranormal stories, I can combine all three while creating a story.

I also love the idea of a supernatural being walking amongst us either trying to fit in or trying to understand humans. The reason I fell in love with vampires is because the idea of a being walking the world with Julius Caesar or Shakespeare, also walking the world with iPhones and cars that park themselves. I remember reading The Vampire Lestat, and picturing the scene when Lestat walked into a Wal Mart after being asleep for 55 years and being amazed that such a place existed. I loved that scene.

With paranormal stories, personally I feel there is a freedom to create whatever you want that isn’t in a lot of other genres.

With that said, you still have to make the world you created and the characters you created believable. When I say you can do whatever you want, I mean you can make up whatever rules you want, but to keep it believable, you have to stick to those rules.

Personally I like to take things that already exist in different mythologies and philosophies and religions, and then put my own spin on them. I use them for a base, and then build my world by adding or subtracting my own rules.

As artist, I think we are born with the ability to see the world in a different way than everyone else. We have that gift of noticing things most people don’t pay attention to, or can’t put into words. So all we do is reflected what we see, in a way that’s entertaining and thought provoking. For me, paranormal stories are a great way expressing things in the world you see, without actually talking about them.

And last, writing paranormal stories is just fun. I love it. I never know where the characters or the world they live in will take me until the final edit.

Gabriel has an amazing new novel out. Don’t miss it!

Ariel by Gabriel Madison

Angel Santos just wants to be an average seventeen year-old girl. That’s kind of hard for a reincarnated Archangel who’s hiding her powers. It gets even harder when God vanishes from Heaven and her old friends turn to her to find the last angel to see Him. Now all she has to do is stop the impending apocalypse and fend off her best friend’s attempts to make her popular. All in a week’s work.

Bio: Gabriel Madison started writing when he was in high school, mostly short stories and poetry, and then developed a passion for screenplays. He attended a private art University in Atlanta, Georgia for Media Production. There he studied script writing and film making. He wrote a few screenplays, and made a few short movies, including a twelve-minute vampire movie he adapted from a short story called Midnight Diner. After leaving school, his passion shifted mainly towards writing stories, rather than shooting and directing them. He writes short stories, novellas, screenplays, graphic novels and full-length novels. He was once asked to define himself: he answered… ‘storyteller.’Other works by Gabriel Madison: Dayling; The Green-eyed Devil

Today an AMAZING new site launched that has me all worked up LOL! BookBuzzed was inspired by the annual Reader & Writer Get Togethers. Every year tons of authors and writers come to common ground and chat adn drink and eat and talk books. Unfortunately, many more than CAN go – Can’t. What about all the readers adn authors who WANT to hook up but can’t get away to an event?

BOOKBUZZED answers their dilemma. Now a different author each day features their newest book and a little about themselves, then they offer up a free copy to one reader. Readers go to see the daily buzz. If they think the title sounds yummy, they enter their email to win. the winner gets an email from the author and a copy of the daily feature sent by them!

All day long the authors with twitter accounts will answer questions to the #bookbuzzed hashtag which scrolls on the BookBuzzed site for those who want to watch but don’t tweet. It’s just a super fun and fabulous way to get to know what’s new on the shelves, meet a new book, get to know lots of authors and do it all from your nice warm home.

I love it!

I hope you’ll pop over and see what the BUZZ is today

Oh, and did I mention that for their November launch party, one of the readers who enter to win a book this month will be chosen at random to receive a new Kindle Fire? So true.